This invention relates to new solid materials of very high mechanical strength and having a density on the order of 1 g/cm.sup.3 ; it also relates to a process for manufacturing these materials, as well as the uses thereof.
For numerous marine applications, related more especially to the working of offshore oil deposits, and the utilization of the heat energy of the oceans, it is important to have available those materials having both a very high mechanical strength (in particular resistance to hydrostatic compression) and a density close to that of water. These properties are difficult to associate together and the conventional materials are in general insufficient from the point of view of one or the other of these properties.